[ithorne]

So, I finally took the plunge and got a subscription for What HiFi magazine. With it came a free one of these: Chord HDMI Active- Buy Chord HDMI Active online

As expected the difference in picture quality is unbeleivable. I just cannot find the words to describe the difference...


there is none of course, however it is a well built cable and it looks good hidden in the cable management system.



So, my serious question is:

Does the fact that this cable has a "dongle" in the middle with the words "Active" embossed into it mean there is electrical gubbinery built into the cable?

The web talks about "high frequency filters" but digital signals at 10.2Gb ARE high frequency signals..

Any comments?

[Joe Fernand]

The Active extender is powered by the internal 5v rail on the HDMI signal bus - it doesn't 'improve' the signal but does ensure everything is at the required levels and allows the cable to be certified as CAT2 at longer lengths than a non amplified cable.

Active cables have been around for a while - BetterCables were possibly the first to implement the technology; The Media Factory

Joe

[metalex]

Originally Posted by Joe Fernand

The Active extender is powered by the internal 5v rail on the HDMI signal bus - it doesn't 'improve' the signal but does ensure everything is at the required levels and allows the cable to be certified as CAT2 at longer lengths than a non amplified cable.

Active cables have been around for a while - BetterCables were possibly the first to implement the technology; The Media Factory

Joe

When you say longer lengths, how long are we talking here?

So basically, this Active extender is completely unnecessary in shorter cable lengths and is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

[Joe Fernand]

HDMI.org currently wont certify a non active cable over 8m as CAT2.

HDMI :: Consumers :: Buying Guide

They have certified a few Active cables up to 12m as CAT2 - see the BetterCables link above.

Anyone claiming that some form of active electronics is somehow 'improving' the video and audio passing over a short HDMI cable has a fair bit of explaining to do - unless they have somehow miniaturised a full blown VP onto a single chip!

Maybe we'll see active cables with VXP, VRS, Reon etc. processing onboard

Joe

[garycake]

Hi,
Glad to hear from someone else that this chord active cable gives a unbelievable jump in quality,and that i am not going insane. I owned a chord silver+ hdmi cable i thought I would try this cable with a 28 day return policy, I thought surly that there was not going to be a difference as much as this, I thoght the picture could not get any better but its as if a fog as been removed on the picture, i hate paying a lot of money for a hdmi cable but if it makes this much difference on my projector then i certainly wont be returning it, I know there will be people that say i am imagining a difference, why cant we settle this ounce and for all by having two identical displays set up and fed by the same make dvd player to see a side by side comparison and settle this hdmi argument ounce and for all.

[BamBamMickey]

Originally Posted by garycake

Hi,
Glad to hear from someone else that this chord active cable gives a unbelievable jump in quality, from my previous chord silver+ hdmi cable i bought this cable with a 28 day return policy, i thought surly that there was not going to be a difference as much as this, I thoght the picture could not get any better but its as if a fog as been removed on the picture, i hate paying a lot of money for a hdmi cable but if it makes this much difference on my projector then i certainly wont be returning it, I know there will be people that say i am imagining a difference, why cant we settle this ounce and for all by having 2 displays set up and fed by the same make dvd player to see a side by side comparison and settle this hdmi argument ounce and for all.

Oops, looks like someone doesn't get sarcasm from the OP.

[ithorne]

Originally Posted by Joe Fernand

The Active extender is powered by the internal 5v rail on the HDMI signal bus - it doesn't 'improve' the signal but does ensure everything is at the required levels and allows the cable to be certified as CAT2 at longer lengths than a non amplified cable.

Active cables have been around for a while - BetterCables were possibly the first to implement the technology; The Media Factory

Joe

Thank you - this is a 1.5m cable - what use could it be?

[ithorne]

Originally Posted by Trey4Life

Oops, looks like someone doesn't get sarcasm from the OP.

Some people may perceive a difference or their set-up may genuinely benefit from the wizardry built in. I watched the HDMI videos on here yesteday and Environmental considerations are important.

For almost everyone the extra components and cost are wasted of course...

[Joe Fernand]

If someone is claiming they have some magic processing going on within the speed bump on a short cable you'll have to ask them if they are willing to divulge their secrets!

When you consider that the guys who are the real anoraks of the video world will usually plumb sources via a high quality Video Processor (VP) costing many hundreds (often thousands) of pounds and have a qualified video calibrator (using some expensive hardware + lots of hard earned knowledge) to optimise things its always tricky to envisage that simply plugging in a cable will have a dramatic effect on a 1m HDMI signal path.

Joe

[metalex]

Originally Posted by garycake

Hi,
Glad to hear from someone else that this chord active cable gives a unbelievable jump in quality,and that i am not going insane. I owned a chord silver+ hdmi cable i thought I would try this cable with a 28 day return policy, I thought surly that there was not going to be a difference as much as this, I thoght the picture could not get any better but its as if a fog as been removed on the picture, i hate paying a lot of money for a hdmi cable but if it makes this much difference on my projector then i certainly wont be returning it, I know there will be people that say i am imagining a difference, why cant we settle this ounce and for all by having two identical displays set up and fed by the same make dvd player to see a side by side comparison and settle this hdmi argument ounce and for all.

I'm afraid you are imagining the difference, Gary. No HDMI cable can improve picture and sound quality. If your old cable worked properly, then your new cable will be no better.

If you read ithorne's post carefully, you'll see he was joking.

[garycake]

Hi again,
gladiator looks so much better now that i am using this hdmi active cable, my equipment consists of a sim2 c3x 720p projector fed with a sony bdp s5000es blueray player, cable lengh is 3m, i have swapped cables back a few times and am utterly convinced of the improovements, can av forums set up a test as i said in my earlier post, it would be interesting.

[loz]

Originally Posted by Joe Fernand

Anyone claiming that some form of active electronics is somehow 'improving' the video and audio passing over a short HDMI cable has a fair bit of explaining to do - unless they have somehow miniaturised a full blown VP onto a single chip!

That would be Chord then I guess
chord co hdmi active interconnect for home cinema

The exciting aspect of the Chord HDMI Active is the inclusion of a high frequency filter on all lengths. The filter reduces the intra/inter channel skew between the four pairs of TDMS signals. In tests using Denon, Arcam, Yamaha and Playstation 3 DVD and Blu-ray players, all aspects of picture were improved by using the HDMI Active cable.

When compared to the Chord HDMI Silver plus 1.3, the Chord Active produced a more detailed, dynamic and crucially musically coherent sound. The improvement in performance was such that in tests participants consistently chose a 15 metre Chord Active HDMI cable over a similarly priced 1 metre cable. In factory and field audio testing, both two channel and multi-channel systems were used.

[ithorne]

Originally Posted by loz

That would be Chord then I guess
chord co hdmi active interconnect for home cinema

There is also this from New Scientist...

Think yourself a better picture - tech - 07 October 2009 - New Scientist

[BamBamMickey]

Originally Posted by garycake

Hi again,
gladiator looks so much better now that i am using this hdmi active cable, .

Why?, does it remove Edge Enhancement & Dynamic Noise Reduction?

[ithorne]

Over in this thread there is a link to a very readable test report:

Originally Posted by Asphyxiate

Evaluation of Results and Final Conclusions — Reviews and News from Audioholics

The outcome was:

Your take-away from all this should be the following:

* At lengths less than 4 meters you can just about use silly string (OK, not really) and get HDMI to pass at any current resolution. At less than 3 meters you'll even extend that to 12-bit color and possibly the next crazy idea HDMI Licensing decides to throw at consumers. Don't spend a lot on these cables and if you want to save money you won't let anyone at a big box store talk you into buying from them.
* At long lengths (over 10 meters) you really need to pay attention to the manufacturer if you don't want to risk running into potential problems with 1080p and future formats such as Deep Color. With that said, just about any cable at or under 10 meters will pass 720p/1080i and nearly everyone will pass 1080p at 8-bit color as well.
* If you have an existing HDMI cable and are running into problems, we'd suggest at least attempting the insertion of an active component at the sink (display) side. This is going to be far cheaper than ripping out your walls and re-running new cables - and likely just as effective.
* HDMI has proven to be a moving target and there is no telling what crazy (likely unnecessary) format they will try to push down the cable next. Due to this, it's always good to "overbuild" your cable install, especially if it's a longer distance and going to end up behind drywall.
* If you're not prone to upgraditis and think 1080p will be your maximum resolution for the life of your install, don't sweat it...

There are going to be exceptions to all these "rules" but in the end I'd have to say that I really thought I'd see more differences in the real-world performances of longer-length cables. Since we're all basically pinned at 8-bit 1080p, I didn't. It's likely you won't either. So all those people saying "buy any cable you want, it doesn't matter" are, for the most part, correct - at least until manufacturers advance to 12-bit software and signal transmission.